Hitchins Appeal

Cheltenham-based developers Robert Hitchins had applied to Cheltenham Borough Council for permission to build 45 houses off Kidnappers’ Lane in Leckhampton on the disused site of Berry’s Nursery.

The land had previously been part of a much larger scheme to construct 650 houses there and on surrounding fields that had been both turned down by the Borough Council’s planning committee and then had an appeal dismissed by the Secretary of State.
Councillors voted almost unanimously to agree with the planning officer’s recommendation to refuse the application on the grounds that the development would damage an important and sensitive landscape.

The committee was addressed by Leckhampton parish councillor Penny Henty, who said: “This would cause damage to a valued landscaped and it would bring more traffic congestion. That already gridlocks Church Road.”